India’s electoral system does work

It’s amazing that Indian democracy works. I am not talking about the staggering figures of 714m eligible voters in 543 constituencies with 828,000 polling stations and 1.36m electronic voting machines, administered and protected by six million officials and security forces – statistics that are trotted out in awe by foreign correspondents every election to grab the attention of their newsdesks.

My point is how surprising it is that the vast mass of India’s electorate tolerates this exercise, and accepts the result, even though it will do them little good. Every five years, and sometimes more frequently, around 60% of those eligible troop into polling booths and vote for aspirant parliamentarians and politicians who are most unlikely to have any interest in improving their lot.

Many will not know or have heard of the candidates because constituency MPs rarely exist here in the way that they do in the UK, where most local MPs tend their local area, hold “surgeries” to help answer people’s questions and meet their needs, and generally become a local figure.

There are only a few such MPs in India – Mani Shankar Aiyar for example in Tamil Nadu. Usually, party power brokers allocate seats at the last minute. The successful candidates then blast their way noisily round their constituencies, making speeches full of empty promises, laced with gifts (when the Election Commission is not looking), and then get elected, or do not.

Parties’ policies seem to matter little, despite detailed manifestos. There is of course a sharp divide over the BJP’s Hindu-nationalism and the Left Front’s soft communism, even though both of these are at least partly curbed in coalitions.

The decline in economic growth and rising prices in the shops, plus terrorist attacks, may count against Congress; but there seems little to choose between the parties on these subjects. Both the BJP and Congress for example have strong liberalisation policies, with the BJP perhaps carrying a little more conviction because both Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh have reservations. And both parties would be tough on terrorism and security.

The first election I reported was in 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress Party won on a huge sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The elections of 1989 and 1996 produced unclear results as the dominance of Congress declined. Congress won again in 1991 on another sympathy wave after Rajiv was assassinated.

Then the Bharatiya Janata Party, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s skilful leadership, came back firmly in 1999 at a time when Sonia Gandhi had yet to pull the Congress Party back together. In 2004, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won a totally unexpected victory because voters had tired of the over-confident BJP and its leading regional allies.

But while the system works, and is some ways getting stronger, it risks being devalued. On the positive side, the expansion of the urban middle class means that more people are able to decide for themselves how to vote without being herded or bullied by caste groups or gang bosses. On the other hand, the system is slipping into hands of political dynasties and regional party leaders, whose personal agendas often mean they care less for democracy or India than past MPs, and politicians with criminal links.

The Public Interest Foundation’s www.nocriminals.org website shows that one in five MPs elected in 2004 had pending criminal cases against them, either awaiting trial or on appeal after conviction – about half the for murder, violent robbery or rape.

They included 40% of Maharashtra’s MPs, 35% of Bihar’s, and 28% in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Among them were five out of nine MPs in Sharad Pawar’s Maharashtra-based Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and eight out of 19 in Mayawati’s UP-based Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). It is well known that criminals use politics to help run their gangs and fix government decisions and contracts.

Dynasties generally have a negative impact on politics because they block a party’s development and prevent new leadership emerging at the top. This is not to under-value the contribution made by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, not to ignore the potential of young dynastic MPs such as Omar Abdullah (now chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir), Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Manvendra Singh, Milind Deora, as well as Rahul Gandhi. These men seem to have positive agendas for improving the lot of the poor and how India is run, though they have yet to prove themselves as able politicians and leaders – and their existence means that outsiders have been denied positions.

There are also numerous sons, daughters and other relations being brought into politics by politicians who do not have such high ideals and seem to be there mainly to sustain a family’s prestige and patronage – and, I suspect, to ensure that illicit assets and money accumulated by their fathers or uncles is kept in the family. It would be good if disillusionment with such patronage led to them losing in elections.

The growth of regional-based parties like Mayawati’s BSP is more worrying because few of them are interested in national policies. They line up with whatever national government suits them (though some do shun the BJP), and this time are working as a (not very stable) third front that could try to step in if neither Congress nor the BJP has enough seats to lead a coalition.

They habitually seek cabinet posts for ministries that are most lucrative in terms of kickbacks – defence, telecoms, highways, aviation and power for example – and seek influential ministers of state posts such as in the finance ministry. National parties also, of course, covet these jobs and there have been Congress Party defence and power ministers in the current government, but these politicians have had a national focus.

Yet, despite all the lack of focus and sincerity – and the corruption, caste-influenced voting, and occasional violence – the system works. That is shown when swings happen and poor-performing MPs lose their seats, and governments are ousted, or elected by unexpectedly large majorities. But the downsides make the system vulnerable. The main thing India needs strong leadership to develop the economy and resist terrorism. For that, it needs a stable government – the risk is that it might not get it.

Responses

how desable people can vote by using electronic machine?for example one old man with shaking hands instead of his choice he press the wrong button what happen next

By: sailaja on September 29, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Indian are very displined people and do not go overboard. They are misguided by the so called netas , day in and day out but they do not lose their composure. If democracy has any chance of working , it has best chance here. Nehru saw this and stuck to the need for allowing adult franchise. The Britishers saw many nations in India while even after the division, Pakistan, Bangladesh (also Nepal and Bhutan ) have a common thread running through and don’t regard the citizens of the other nations as non-brothers.

Looking to the present political set up in the country neither BJP and nor congress is expected to form new govt. in the country after next parliament election. Mr Yashwant Deshmukh who runs the Team Cvoter polling firm from London and covered more than 100 elections in the country, has even predicted Mayawati as the new PM with inside or outside support of left parties together with the outside support of either of BJP or congress. Past experience has shown that such a govt. will be most unstable and damaging and disgusting for the country. Horse trading character of our politician is not forgotten by any body. Such circumstances will jeopardize all the efforts of developments in the country. All progress will be pushed back by another five years or so resulting into more poverty and miseries. Only remedy is election of a stable Govt. For that people should ignore regional issues and parties to save the country.

By: Kulbir Singh on April 4, 2009 at 9:01 pm

Sub.:- “ Wake up call.”

Sir,

The time has come that we should wake up and vote for candidate with clean image only.
If we still kept on sleeping, as before, the future generations will never forgive us. The parliament political instability lurking ahead will mar all the prospects of national development. Our conscious approach should be to elect a stable Govt. with absolute majority. Still better, if such an elected Govt. later make a constitutional amendment for participation of only two parties in all future Lok Sabha Elections. Only then we will be able to root out this evil for ever. The past experience has shown that the regional parties have never played any constructive role in good governance of the country rather have been cause of leg pulling and blackmailing in the parliament. Many a times these parties have lead the country near to national disintegration. Above all, we still have Rajya Sabha, as upper house in the parliament, to take advantage of talents left out of political field for building the nation. Regional parties may however keep on playing at state level, keeping their alliance with either of the two. national parties in the centre. More ever the countries with twin parties election system world over, have been flourishing by leap and bounds. Such an action will naturally go a long way in full filling our dream of making India a super power in the world.